On the king's road at the royal camp. "Trust me, that's not the worst thing. There was a rider in the night." Ned Stark looked at the paper. "Daenerys Targaryen weds a horse lord, or Daenerys Targaryen disappeared. Let me guess, the spies can't keep up or loyalists are spreading misinformation. What of it? We send her a wedding gift." "Ha, a knife—a good sharp one!" "She's little more than a child." "Soon enough, that child will spread her legs and start breeding." "Tell me we aren't speaking of this." "Oh, it's unspeakable what her father did to your family! What that scum did to your sister, the woman I loved! That was unspeakable! I'll kill everyone I get my hands on!" The king slammed his fist on the table. "The horse lord has a hundred thousand troops." "It matters not; they have no ships and fear the sea, Robert." "There are still those in the Seven Kingdoms who call me usurper; the lies in the information are proof of this. The scum will join him after crossing the Narrow Sea with a horde at his back." "He will not cross, and if he does, we will throw him back into the sea." "There's a war coming, Ned. I don't know when, I don't know who will be fighting, but it's coming." Winterfell. Lady Stark's hands were soaked in blood, both hers and the assassin's who tried to kill her son. If not for the wolf biting his throat, she wasn't sure they would be alive. As she was sitting on the floor in shock, feeling cold and incredibly tired. She now knew something was wrong with her son's fall from the tower. When investigating the next day, she found some golden hair. When talking with her trusted advisors and her eldest son, it was decided she would go to King's Landing to bring proof to her husband in secret and to pray at the Great Sept because her faith was proven true. The Stranger had heard her prayers. The royal camp on the king's road. Sansa and Joffrey walked along the river while the butcher's boy and Arya fought with wooden sticks. "The butcher's boy who wants to be a knight. Pick up your sword, then let's see how good you are," Joffrey mocked while advancing on him with sword drawn. "My lord, she asked me to." "I'm your prince, not your lord, and I said pick up your sword!" "It's only a stick." "And you're not a knight, only a butcher's boy. That was my lady's sister you were hitting; do you know that?" Arya stepped in to try to stop the fight, but Sansa told her to stay out of it. Joffrey sadistically cut into the poor boy's face, resulting in Arya shoving him and a fight taking place between the two. "Stop it, both of you; you're spoiling everything!" Sansa shouted. Before Arya was knocked down, "I'll gut you! You little cunt!" was all Joffrey could say before a wolf bit his arm, and he was reduced to a whimpering, screaming mess, and Arya had the sword. Eventually, she tossed the sword in the river and ran away like her friend, leaving her sister to comfort her prince. Arya had to let Nymeria escape into the forest to save her from execution and hide herself for as long as she could. The search parties eventually found Arya, and as such, she was drawn into the story the queen had cooked up for Joffrey despite her protests. The king had enough of this childish squabbling and called for Sansa, who in all her noble pride lied to protect Joffrey and Arya by saying nothing. Arya only viewed this as her perfect sister protecting her prince charming, so she attacked her, further cementing the queen's story. The king stood as all went silent. "Damn it all, children fight! It's over. I can't just whip her through the streets." "Joffrey will have these scars for the rest of his life," the queen pressed. The king gave a side-eye to his eldest son. "You let that little girl disarm you.... Ned, see to it that your daughters are disciplined; I'll do the same with my son." Just as he was about to leave for drinks and whores and freedom from this mess, his infernal wife brought up the wolf, and as such, without much thought, it was decided to put down the only wolf in the camp.
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"He can't mean Lady, can he? She doesn't bite anyone! Lady wasn't there. Stop them; don't let them do this! Please, please, it wasn't Lady!" she screamed as she grabbed her father's arm. Unfortunately, the king ignored her father.
In a beam of white light, a very confused lady was brought to the royal capital of Britannia, far across the sea, and in her place was a similar wolf, quite sedated with numerous calming drugs, with a hard light hologram acting as a second skin to give the appearance of Lady. The boy from the closet greeted her and gave her head pats, so she supposed this was better than being in chains. That night, both Lady and the butcher's boy were killed. Unfortunately for the boy, his death was quite real, as he simply didn't have connections or value to the nobility.
King's Landing, an unknown time later.
"Welcome, Lord Stark. Grand Maester Pycelle has called a meeting of the Small Council and your presence is requested." And so, Lord Stark's headaches began in earnest, starting with his conflict with the shiny Kingslayer, whose armor had no scars from true battle and whose body bore no wounds from life-and-death struggles. He, who broke his oaths and still had the gall to mock his father's and brothers' honor when they were buried before the Mad King, then justified his act of kingslaying as justice for his family when in reality it was just to ease his conscience. All he did was join the winning side and called it heroic.